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127-669: Rare Limited is a British video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Twycross , Leicestershire . Rare's games span the platform , first-person shooter , action-adventure , fighting , and racing genres. Its most popular games include the Battletoads , Donkey Kong , and Banjo-Kazooie series, as well as games like GoldenEye 007 (1997), Perfect Dark (2000), Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001), Viva Piñata (2006), and Sea of Thieves (2018). Tim and Chris Stamper , who also founded Ultimate Play

254-463: A bidding war for ownership of Rare. Rare expressed interest in Activision's offer, but Microsoft offered more money. On 24 September 2002, Microsoft purchased Rare for $ 375 million (~$ 607 million in 2023). Rare became a first-party developer for Microsoft's Xbox . Character trademarks from games developed by Rare for Nintendo consoles, such as Conker of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Banjo of

381-593: A database , Voice over IP , or add-in interface software; this is also known as middleware . Examples of this include SpeedTree and Havoc . Independents are software developers which are not owned by (or dependent on) a single publisher. Some of these developers self-publish their games, relying on the Internet and word of mouth for publicity. Without the large marketing budgets of mainstream publishers, their products may receive less recognition than those of larger publishers such as Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. With

508-451: A real-time strategy game involving cavemen, the game was re-imagined into a racing game prior to its release in 1997. It was one of the fastest selling games at the time, as recorded by The Guinness Book of Records . Diddy Kong Racing also features protagonists from some future Rare games, including Banjo and Conker . At the time, Rare was still working on the large-scale platform game. Originally codenamed Dream: Land of Giants , it

635-420: A Kinect-based game; Kinect equivalents of Wii Fit and Professor Layton , a sequel to Diddy Kong Racing , and a sequel to Kameo: Elements of Power . Rare received numerous awards, including BAFTA award for "Best UK Developer" for its work on GoldenEye 007 . In 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly named Rare "Most Promising Game Company", citing their high rate of success in putting out killer apps for

762-461: A consistent pace for five years. On October 14, 2024, Microsoft announced that Duncan will be promoted to head of Xbox Game Studios in November to succeed the outgoing Alan Hartman, with Joe Neate and Jim Horth to succeed him as studio heads. According to Mark Betteridge, one of Rare's main goals is to create games people will find enjoyable rather than just to earn profit. The Stamper brothers gave

889-506: A critical success for the company while less creativity and innovation were shown in them. When the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was conceived, Rare was not yet ready for the change. Rare limited their releases to some Battletoads games and decided to invest their significant NES profit in purchasing expensive Silicon Graphics workstations to make three-dimensional models. This move made Rare

1016-897: A crossover game between the two franchises. Rare released three Battletoads games in 1993, including Battletoads / Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team , Battletoads in Ragnarok's World and Battletoads in Battlemaniacs . The last Battletoads game from that era was released for the arcade in 1994. Several Battletoads games were also ported to some Sega 's systems like the Mega Drive/Genesis . Rare worked on licensed properties such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Hollywood Squares , and ports including Marble Madness , Narc , and Sid Meier's Pirates! . The development of four of Rare's games were outsourced to Zippo Games, including Wizards & Warriors and

1143-452: A culture of "toxic geek masculinity" within the workplace. In addition, the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family. These factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion, as well as

1270-565: A documentary about their studios at MundoRare's expense. The film, to celebrate Rare's 25th anniversary, would have been distributed on the internet and Xbox Live . Rare refused permission to shoot the film, saying that it was not "on message". MundoRare was shut down, and stated that the site could not support the company's new corporate direction. Rare's secrecy was criticised by Hardcore Gamer ' s Alex Carlson, as they thought that it made them "disconnected", and prompted them to develop games that "their fans don't want". When Duncan took over as

1397-527: A few specific video-game genres. They have also developed action-adventure games , including Star Fox Adventures and Kameo: Elements of Power ; fighting games , such as the Killer Instinct series; racing games , such as R.C. Pro-Am and Diddy Kong Racing , and beat 'em up - shoot 'em up games such as Battletoads and Captain Skyhawk . Since Rare has usually been associated with

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1524-571: A first-party company. As a balance to not being able to release their game for other platforms, second-party developers are usually offered higher royalty rates than third-party developers. These studios may have exclusive publishing agreements (or other business relationships) with the platform holder, but maintain independence so that upon completion or termination of their contracts, they are able to continue developing games for other publishers if they choose to. For example, while HAL Laboratory initially began developing games on personal computers like

1651-410: A fixed period and generally work similar hours as full-time staff members, assisting across all areas of video game development, but as contractors, do not get any benefits such as paid time-off or health care from the employer; they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason. The practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas, and generally it

1778-408: A focus on Xbox Live avatars. Rare also shifted their focus to Kinect. According to Henson, "Kinect will be the main focus for Rare going forwards as it's a very rich canvas. This is just the beginning of an experience that will touch millions of people". Rare's first Kinect project, Kinect Sports , was released in November 2010. Originally titled Sports Star , a more-complex sports simulation game ,

1905-403: A game on schedule. The complexity of workflow, reliance on third-party deliverables, and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones. The use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger male-dominated workforce in video games, who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within

2032-406: A game's profits. Current examples of first-party studios include PlayStation Studios for Sony, and Xbox Game Studios for Microsoft Gaming . Second-party developer is a colloquial term often used by gaming enthusiasts and media to describe game studios that take development contracts from platform holders and develop games exclusive to that platform, i.e. a non-owned developer making games for

2159-594: A generic game with their intellectual properties. Everybody likes to create this narrative that Microsoft are evil, but that's not the case – they were very supportive. I guess there were a few people who have since left who thought: 'I wanted to be working on this game or my pet project, and I didn't get to.' And they've kind of painted a picture that it's all Microsoft's fault. — Gavin Price, former Rare employee and founder of Playtonic Games , about Microsoft. Ed Fries , head of Microsoft Studios' publishing division at

2286-724: A large minority stake in the company, with the release of Donkey Kong Country (1994). Throughout the 1990s, Rare started selling their games under the trademark name "Rareware" and received international recognition and critical acclaim for games such as the Donkey Kong Country series, Killer Instinct (1994), GoldenEye 007 , Banjo-Kazooie (1998), Perfect Dark (2000), and Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001). In 2002, Microsoft acquired Rare, which retained its original brand, logo, and most intellectual properties . Rare has since focused on developing games exclusively for Microsoft's video game consoles , including Grabbed by

2413-624: A larger, more casual audience. The game received mixed reviews from critics, and was considered Rare's worst and least-popular game. At E3 2004 , Microsoft's Ken Lobb said that Rare had obtained Nintendo DS development kits and was working on two games for the Nintendo DS. Shortly afterwards, Microsoft issued a statement that the company and its studios had no plans for Nintendo DS development. However, in July 2005, Rare posted job openings for Nintendo DS development on its website and said that it

2540-565: A mobile game company founded by Tim's son, Joe Stamper. Their first game is That Bouncy Thing! The Rubbishiest Game Ever for Android . Rare has developed a number of video games since its founding, with sales nearing 90 million copies by 2002. The company is best known for its platform games , which include the Donkey Kong Country , Banjo-Kazooie , and Conker series, and for its Nintendo 64 first-person shooters GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark . Rare does not adhere to

2667-561: A mobile-game studio, Flippin Pixels. Former Rare employee Lee Schuneman headed Lift London , a Microsoft studio. Phil Tossell and Jennifer Schneidereit founded Nyamyam and released Tengami . Playtonic Games was founded by several former Rare employees in 2014. They are best known for the Yooka-Laylee series, with the first game being a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie . Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper joined FortuneFish,

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2794-437: A position in a medium to large video game company. An experienced game-development employee, depending on their expertise and experience, averaged roughly $ 73,000 in 2007. Indie game developers may only earn between $ 10,000 and $ 50,000 a year depending on how financially successful their titles are. In addition to being part of the software industry, game development is also within the entertainment industry; most sectors of

2921-610: A racing game with vehicular combat elements, and Snake Rattle 'n' Roll , an action platform game with Tim Stamper developing the game's graphics. Rare also developed Battletoads , a beat'em up inspired by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The game became known for its extreme difficulty, and upon seeing success, publisher Tradewest published multiple ports for the game, and tasked Rare to develop sequels. Tradewest also gave their own Double Dragon licence to Rare, allowing them to develop

3048-411: A remake of Conker's Bad Fur Day , in 2005 with updated graphics and a reworked multiplayer option. The game received generally favourable reviews but, similar to Bad Fur Day , was a commercial failure. Xbox successor Xbox 360 was released in 2005, and two of its launch games were developed by Rare: Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power . Zero , a prequel to the first Perfect Dark ,

3175-697: A retrospective of the company's work in 2018. Video game developer A developer may specialize in specific game engines or specific video game consoles , or may develop for several systems (including personal computers and mobile devices ). Some focus on porting games from one system to another, or translating games from one language to another. Less commonly, some do software development work in addition to games. Most video game publishers maintain development studios (such as Electronic Arts 's EA Canada , Square Enix 's studios, Activision 's Radical Entertainment , Nintendo EPD and Sony's Polyphony Digital and Naughty Dog ). However, since publishing

3302-649: A roundtable discussion with the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), the professional association for developers. Statements made by the IGDA's current executive director Jen MacLean relating to IGDA's activities had been seen by as anti-union, and Game Workers Unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize. In the wake of the sudden near-closure of Telltale Games in September 2018,

3429-407: A single publisher; one canceled game may devastate a small developer. Because of this, many small development companies are short-lived. A common exit strategy for a successful video game developer is to sell the company to a publisher, becoming an in-house developer. In-house development teams tend to have more freedom in game design and content than third-party developers. One reason is that since

3556-403: A strong STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) background for women at the secondary education level, but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities, where game development programs tend to reflect the male-dominated demographics of the industry, a factor that may lead women with strong STEM backgrounds to choose other career goals. There

3683-537: A studio specialising in developing iOS games. Chris Seavor, director of Conker's Bad Fur Day , founded the Gory Detail studio along with Rare employee Shawn Pile. They released Parashoot Stan for mobile devices, as well as The Unlikely Legend of Rusty Pup on Steam. Starfire Studios were founded by four former Rare employees and released Fusion Genesis , an Xbox Live Arcade game published by Microsoft Game Studios. Another group of former Rare employees formed

3810-697: A unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force, including white-collar jobs such as video game development, may engage with labor unions under the Employment Protection Act often through collective bargaining agreements. Developer DICE had reached its union agreements in 2004. Paradox Interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in June 2020 with its own agreements to cover its Swedish employees within two labor unions Unionen and SACO . In Australia, video game developers could join other unions, but

3937-501: A video-game console manufacturer (such as Nintendo and Microsoft ), most of their games have been developed as exclusives for a particular platform . In 2018, Rare released Sea of Thieves , a pirate-themed open world sandbox game for Xbox One and Windows 10 . At Microsoft's X019 event, a fantasy action-adventure title called Everwild was announced. The company's cancelled projects include Dream: Land of Giants , which became Banjo-Kazooie ; Perfect Dark Core , originally

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4064-482: Is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry; a 2019 IGDA survey found only 2% of developers considered themselves to be of African descent and 7% Hispanic, while 81% were Caucasian; in contrast, 2018 estimates from the United States Census estimate the U.S. population to be 13% of African descent and 18% Hispanic. In a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries,

4191-449: Is expected that this is meant to lead into a full-time position, or otherwise the end of the contract. But more recently, its use in the video game industry has been compared to Microsoft 's past use of " permatemp ", contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits. While Microsoft has waned from the practice, the video game industry has adapted it more frequently. Around 10% of

4318-533: Is generally illegal, companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction. Older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered. Some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees. Contractors are brought on for

4445-494: Is still their primary activity they are generally described as "publishers" rather than "developers". Developers may be private as well. In the video game industry , a first-party developer is part of a company that manufactures a video game console and develops mainly for it. First-party developers may use the name of the company itself (such as Nintendo ), have a specific division name (such as Sony's Polyphony Digital ) or have been an independent studio before being acquired by

4572-474: Is usually conducted in a casual business environment, with t-shirts and sandals as common work attire. Many workers find this type of environment rewarding and pleasant professionally and personally. However, the industry also requires long working hours from its employees (sometimes to an extent seen as unsustainable). Employee burnout is not uncommon. An entry-level programmer can make, on average, over $ 66,000 annually only if they are successful in obtaining

4699-503: Is very important to the company, thus they focus on trying out new technology, such as Xbox 360's Kinect. Historically the company has developed only for video game consoles, never for personal computers , with the Stamper brothers citing a preference for working on a stable standard format which is specifically designed for playing games. According to Duncan in 2014, Rare would only develop games that had unique ideas, and will never develop

4826-552: The Banjo-Kazooie series, were retained by Rare; intellectual property created by Nintendo, such as Donkey Kong and Star Fox , were retained by Nintendo. This left Donkey Kong Racing , due for release for the GameCube, unreleased. 30 employees left Rare during the transition. Since Microsoft was not part of the handheld video-game console market, Rare continued to develop games for Nintendo handheld consoles after

4953-541: The Donkey Kong Land series. Nintendo's stake purchase allowed Rare to expand significantly. The number of staff members increased from 84 to 250, and Rare moved out from their headquarters at the Manor Farmhouse. Rare also developed a CGI arcade fighting game , Killer Instinct , on their own custom-built arcade machine . Killer Instinct was set to be released for Nintendo's own 64-bit system,

5080-460: The TimeSplitters series. The studio would be acquired by Crytek and renamed Crytek UK before its 2014 closure, with most of its staff moving to Deep Silver Dambuster Studios . Deep Silver briefly reestablished Free Radical Design from 2021 to 2023, with original founding members Steve Ellis and David Doak heading up the studio. Other former Free Radical and Rare staff formed Crash Labs,

5207-659: The AFL–CIO writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize. In January 2020, Game Workers Unite and the Communications Workers of America established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers, the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE), in January 2020. Initial efforts for CODE were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for

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5334-456: The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), are conducting increasing discussions about the problem; they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees' quality of life. Some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of "crunch time". "Crunch time" is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch

5461-516: The MSX , they became one of the earliest second-party developers for Nintendo, developing exclusively for Nintendo's consoles starting with the Famicom, though they would self-publish their mobile games. A third-party developer may also publish games, or work for a video game publisher to develop a title. Both publisher and developer have considerable input in the game's design and content. However,

5588-528: The Me Too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry-wide, the video game industry has yet to have its Me Too-moment, even as late as 2021. There also tends to be pay-related discrimination against women in the industry. According to Gamasutra 's Game Developer Salary Survey 2014, women in the United States made 86 cents for every dollar men made. Game designing women had

5715-460: The Nintendo 64 in 1995, but was forced to release the game for the 16-bit SNES system, and had to downgrade the game's graphics. Killer Instinct sold 3.2 million copies, and was followed by a sequel, Killer Instinct 2 . Killer Instinct Gold , the console version of Killer Instinct 2 , suffered from a graphical downgrade due to the compression technology used to fit the arcade version onto

5842-504: The Screen Actors Guild‐American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) union doing work for video games struck several major publishers, demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances, when their union's standard contract was up for renewal. The voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between SAG-AFTRA and

5969-531: The trademark name "Rareware". The company was considered one of Nintendo's key developers and had enough recognition that Nintendo offered Rare the Nintendo catalogue of characters to create a 3D CGI game. The Stampers asked for Donkey Kong . The resulting game was Donkey Kong Country , which was developed by a total of 20 people and enjoyed an 18-month development cycle . Rare staff also visited Twycross Zoo , observing and videotaping real gorillas. The game

6096-556: The video game industry . He told the Los Angeles Times : "Someone who was part of the co-creation of that world and those characters isn't getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it. Maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators." Jetpac Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

6223-460: The Game , established Rare in 1985. During its early years, Rare was backed by a generous budget from Nintendo , primarily concentrated on Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) games. During this time, Rare created successful games such as Wizards & Warriors (1987), R.C. Pro-Am (1988), and Battletoads (1991). Rare became a prominent second-party developer for Nintendo, which came to own

6350-535: The Game team an unlimited budget for them to work on games for the Famicom platform. After they returned to England, they moved from Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Twycross , and established a new studio through Rare. They set their headquarters in a Manor Farmhouse. Rare also set up another company known as Rare, Inc., in Miami, Florida . Headed by Joel Hochberg, the American company was involved in maintaining Rare's operation in

6477-474: The GameCube. Game development costs gradually increased, and Nintendo did not provide Rare with more capital nor did they purchase the company's remaining stake. The Stampers were surprised that Nintendo did not directly acquire the studio. Rare looked for potential buyers. In early 2000, workers from Activision and Microsoft began visiting Rare with purchase offers. According to Microsoft's Ed Fries , Nintendo, Activision, and Microsoft then became embroiled in

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6604-643: The Ghoulies (2003), Kameo (2005), Perfect Dark Zero (2005), and Viva Piñata (2006). In 2007, the Stampers left Rare to pursue other opportunities and, in 2010, the company's focus shifted to the Xbox Live Avatar and Kinect , releasing three Kinect Sports games. In 2015, Rare developed Rare Replay , an Xbox One -exclusive compilation containing 30 of its games to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Rare's most recent game, Sea of Thieves ,

6731-446: The IGDA found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers. Further, because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters, this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games. Minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to

6858-534: The Nintendo 64. However, Nintendo Senior Managing Director Shigeru Miyamoto suggested the team redesign the game as part of the Star Fox series for Nintendo's new console, the GameCube . Unlike previous Star Fox games, Star Fox Adventures focuses on ground-based, open world exploration. The game received positive reviews upon its launch in 2002. Star Fox Adventures was the only game developed by Rare for

6985-521: The Nintendo 64. Rare was awarded the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Moving Images Award in 2000 for developing Perfect Dark . Tim and Chris Stamper were named as Development Legends in the 2015 Develop Industry Excellence Awards. Rare was included as Gamasutra 's Top 30 Developers of All Time, and was ranked as the 36th best video game maker by IGN . The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum curated

7112-530: The US and contacting major US publishers. Hochberg was previously the vice president of American arcade manufacturer Centuri . The Famicom was eventually released in North America and Europe under the name Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). My goal at Rare was to bring products that you wouldn't see for six to eight years and make it available as soon as possible. — Tim Stamper, founder of Rare. With

7239-576: The ZX Spectrum in the following year. The Famicom's manufacturer, Nintendo , claimed that it was impossible to reverse engineer the console. Using the information the Ultimate Play the Game team acquired from Rare, the team prepared several tech demos and showed them to the Nintendo executive Minoru Arakawa in Kyoto . Impressed with their efforts, Nintendo decided to grant the Ultimate Play

7366-484: The acquisition of Activision Blizzard , stated it supported these unionization efforts. After this acquisition, the employees of Bethesda Game Studios , part of Zenimax under Microsoft, unionized under the Communications Workers of America (CWA) in July 2024. Over 500 employees within Blizzard Entertainment 's World of Warcraft division also unionized with CWA that same month. Sweden presents

7493-504: The acquisition. He noted that Rare employees were attempting to "recreate the glory years", but their skills had become outdated and were no longer "applicable in today's market". Duncan insisted that there were still a lot of talented people working at Rare, and they will have a "bright future". Unlike other software developers, Rare acquired a reputation for secrecy; the approach to their office buildings, in Manor Park near Twycross ,

7620-472: The acquisition. In August 2003, Rare and Microsoft entered an agreement with THQ for THQ to publish Rare's games for the Game Boy Advance , including Sabre Wulf , a game based on an Ultimate character; Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge , initially intended as a Game Boy Color game and It's Mr. Pants! , a puzzle game originally developed as Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers . January 2005 saw

7747-542: The addition of Banjo & Kazooie as playable characters in the crossover fighting game Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch as well as re-releases of their games on Nintendo Switch Online . At the X019 event in November 2019, Rare announced it was developing Everwild , an action-adventure game for Windows and Xbox Series X/S . As of January 2020, Rare had more than 200 employees, after growing at

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7874-572: The advent of digital distribution of inexpensive games on game consoles, it is now possible for indie game developers to forge agreements with console manufacturers for broad distribution of their games. Other indie game developers create game software for a number of video-game publishers on several gaming platforms. In recent years this model has been in decline; larger publishers, such as Electronic Arts and Activision, increasingly turn to internal studios (usually former independent developers acquired for their development needs). Video game development

8001-585: The cartridge of the SNES system, a process known as "Advanced Computer Modelling". Their progress with the 3D graphics on the SGI systems impressed Nintendo, and in 1994, Nintendo bought a 25% stake in the company that gradually increased to 49%, making Rare a second-party developer for Nintendo. Rare maintained autonomous operations, green-lighting and designing projects without significant involvement from Nintendo. During this period, Rare started selling their games under

8128-431: The closest equity, making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job, while audio professional women had the largest gap, making 68% of what men in the same position made. Increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games. Efforts have been made to provide

8255-544: The company as it was more sophisticated than the Spectrum, it had a worldwide market, and its cartridges had no load times. As a result, Rare was established in 1985. Its main goal was to reverse-engineer the console and investigate the codes for Famicom's games to learn more about the console's programming. With successful results, the company decided to sell the Ultimate brand to U.S. Gold , and ceased game development for

8382-541: The company's games for Microsoft sold poorly and Microsoft decided to restructure the studio at the end of the decade. In March 2010, Rare opened a new facility at Fazeley Studios in Digbeth , Birmingham . Later that year, Microsoft confirmed that Scott Henson, a developer who had worked on the hardware and software designs of the Xbox 360 console and Kinect for Xbox 360, replaced Mark Betteridge as studio manager and announced

8509-670: The company's studio director. That year saw the release of Jetpac Refuelled , a remake of Jetpac for Xbox Live Arcade . Rare unveiled work on Xbox Live avatars , Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (the next game in the Viva Piñata series), and Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts in 2008. Made by the core team that developed the first Banjo-Kazooie , Nuts & Bolts received significant criticism from players due to its focus on vehicle construction rather than traditional platforming. Though generally receiving positive reviews,

8636-467: The completion of this deal with the release of Banjo-Pilot , known as Diddy Kong Pilot before the Microsoft acquisition. In 2003, Rare released their first Microsoft game, Grabbed by the Ghoulies , a humorous action-adventure game set in a haunted mansion full of supernatural creatures. Originally intended as a free-roaming game, it was significantly streamlined in design and concept to attract

8763-416: The console manufacturer (such as Rare or Naughty Dog ). Whether by purchasing an independent studio or by founding a new team, the acquisition of a first-party developer involves a huge financial investment on the part of the console manufacturer, which is wasted if the developer fails to produce a hit game on time. However, using first-party developers saves the cost of having to make royalty payments on

8890-508: The console. This established the use of licensing fees as a model for third-party development that persists into the present. The licensing fee approach was further enforced by Nintendo when it decided to allow other third-party developers to make games for the Famicom console, setting a 30% licensing fee that covered game cartridge manufacturing costs and development fees. The 30% licensing fee for third-party developers has also persisted to

9017-444: The developer if the game is not meeting expectations. When each milestone is completed (and accepted), the publisher pays the developer an advance on royalties . Successful developers may maintain several teams working on different games for different publishers. Generally, however, third-party developers tend to be small, close-knit teams. Third-party game development is a volatile sector, since small developers may depend on income from

9144-417: The developers are the publisher's employees, their interests align with those of the publisher; the publisher may spend less effort ensuring that the developer's decisions do not enrich the developer at the publisher's expense. Activision in 1979 became the first third-party video game developer. When four Atari, Inc. programmers left the company following its sale to Warner Communications , partially over

9271-578: The development of a sequel, Kinect Sports: Season Two . In March 2011, Scott Henson announced that Craig Duncan, who had worked on Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and the Colin McRae Rally series, was hired as senior studio director. Simon Woodroffe, who had worked at several studios (including Adventure Soft , Midway Games , Ubisoft , and Sega ), became the studio's creative director in April 2012. A Rare property, Killer Instinct ,

9398-467: The entertainment industry (such as films and television ) require long working hours and dedication from their employees, such as willingness to relocate and/or required to develop games that do not appeal to their personal taste. The creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry, creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees. Industry communities, such as

9525-572: The first video game-specific union, Game Workers Unite Australia, was formed in December 2021 under Professionals Australia to become active in 2022. In Canada, in a historic move, video game workers in Edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in June 2022. In January 2023, after not being credited in The Last of Us HBO adaptation, Bruce Straley called for unionization of

9652-437: The game was named Perfect Dark . Hollis left Rare for Nintendo 14 months after the start of Perfect Dark ' s development. Around the same time, numerous employees left the company and formed new studios. With major project leads departing, a new team took over its development and diminished the role of lighting in the game, making it a more straightforward first-person shooter. The game's troubled development did not affect

9779-469: The game was streamlined into what Microsoft executive Don Mattrick hoped would be the Kinect equivalent of Wii Sports . According to a former Rare employee, the team was worried about the game during its development because of Kinect's limitations. Its reviews were average, but it was a commercial success, selling three million units by May 2011. Rare and BigPark , another Microsoft studio, collaborated on

9906-404: The gaming industry, while a 2017 IGDA survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20%. Taking into account that a 2017 ESA survey found 41% of video game players were female, this represented a significant gender gap in game development. The male-dominated industry, most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture , can create

10033-555: The greatest and most influential games of all time , though some fans and former employees have been critical of the company's output under Microsoft. Rare evolved from the company Ultimate Play the Game , which was founded in Ashby-de-la-Zouch , Leicestershire by former arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper . After multiple critically and commercially successful releases including Jetpac , Atic Atac , Sabre Wulf , and Knight Lore , Ultimate Play The Game

10160-457: The industry by working long hours. Because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence, the term "crunch culture" is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception. The use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004, when Erin Hoffman exposed

10287-431: The lack of respect that the new management gave to programmers, they used their knowledge of how Atari VCS game cartridges were programmed to create their own games for the system, founding Activision in 1979 to sell these. Atari took legal action to try to block the sale of these games, but the companies ultimately settled, with Activision agreeing to pay a portion of their sales as a license fee to Atari for developing for

10414-459: The money went towards Gears of War , which is going to sell millions anyway. It was a bit of like, "What about the other franchise?" I think we got left in the wake somewhat. — Software engineer James Thomas, on the marketing campaign for Viva Piñata . In 2006, the company released Viva Piñata , a game involving gardening . Incorporating elements of several franchises including The Sims , Animal Crossing , and Harvest Moon , it

10541-575: The most technologically advanced developer in the UK, and situated them high in the international market. Their priority also changed at that time, as the team decided to focus on quality instead of quantity. Rare, using the SGI systems, created a boxing game demo and presented it to Nintendo. As the SNES at that time could not render all of the SGI graphics at once, Rare used the SGI graphics to produce 3D models and graphics, before pre-rendering these graphics onto

10668-559: The movement again called out for the industry to unionize. The movement argued that Telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go, having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior, and left them without pensions or health-care options; it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs, as to get around failure to notify required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 preceding layoffs. The situation

10795-448: The nature of the video game culture. The industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue, discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers. A 2016 IGDA survey found only 3% of developers were over 50 years old, while at least two-thirds were between 20 and 34; these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the U.S. national average of about 41.9 that same year. While discrimination by age in hiring practices

10922-540: The news, there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union. A survey performed by the International Game Developers Association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2,200 developers surveyed favored unionization. A similar survey of over 4,000 game developers run by the Game Developers Conference in early 2019 found that 47% of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize. In 2016, voice actors in

11049-424: The other games we're developing in the company, so it's really a group of games enthusiasts all working together to produce the best games they can – that's Rare. Though normally secretive, Rare allowed several exclusive tours of its studio by fansites Rarenet in 1999, Rare-Extreme in 2004 and again in 2009, as well as by the website Eurogamer in 2006. In 2010, Rare declined an offer by fansite MundoRare to film

11176-418: The overall change "positive", saying that Microsoft's capital could help Rare develop their projects. Former Rare employee Gavin Price said that some Microsoft executives, such as Phil Spencer , were supportive of the developer. Grant Kirkhope , a former composer at Rare, strongly criticised Microsoft following the acquisition. Former Xbox executive Peter Moore voiced his disappointment with Rare's works after

11303-694: The present, being a de facto rate used for most digital storefronts for third-party developers to offer their games on the platform. In recent years, larger publishers have acquired several third-party developers. While these development teams are now technically "in-house", they often continue to operate in an autonomous manner (with their own culture and work practices). For example, Activision acquired Raven (1997); Neversoft (1999), which merged with Infinity Ward in 2014; Z-Axis (2001); Treyarch (2001); Luxoflux (2002); Shaba (2002); Infinity Ward (2003) and Vicarious Visions (2005). All these developers continue operating much as they did before acquisition,

11430-414: The primary differences being exclusivity and financial details. Publishers tend to be more forgiving of their own development teams going over budget (or missing deadlines) than third-party developers. A developer may not be the primary entity creating a piece of software, usually providing an external software tool which helps organize (or use) information for the primary software product. Such tools may be

11557-430: The progress of Rare's other teams. When Perfect Dark was still in development, Rare released two other games, Jet Force Gemini and Donkey Kong 64 . In 1999, Nintendo signed an agreement with Disney , and assigned Rare to develop several racing and adventure games featuring Mickey Mouse . The project later became Mickey's Speedway USA and Mickey's Racing Adventure . Perfect Dark eventually resurfaced and it

11684-429: The publisher's wishes generally override those of the developer. Work for hire studios solely execute the publishers vision. The business arrangement between the developer and publisher is governed by a contract, which specifies a list of milestones intended to be delivered over a period of time. By updating its milestones, the publisher verifies that work is progressing quickly enough to meet its deadline and can direct

11811-467: The publishers. While this had some effects on a few games within the industry, it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize. A grassroots movement, Game Workers Unite , was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers. The group came to the forefront during the March 2018 Game Developers Conference by holding

11938-469: The sequel to the first Perfect Dark ; Black Widow , an open world game that tasks players to control an eight-legged robot; Sundown , which featured a horde-like survival mode; The Fast and the Furriest , a mascot racer; Tailwind , an action game featuring helicopters ; Urchin , a Fable -style game which began development after the completion of Live & Reloaded ; Ordinary Joe ; Savannah ,

12065-432: The smaller Nintendo 64 cartridge. Rare then developed Blast Corps for the Nintendo 64 . The game sold one million copies, which was considered disappointing by Rare. At that time, Rare was split into several teams, working on different projects. A large-scaled platformer was set to be released afterwards but was delayed. As a result, Rare changed their schedule and released their smaller projects first. The first project

12192-425: The studio's head, he intended to change the culture of the studio. Rare's office was completely remodeled so as to facilitate idea sharing between team members. The studio also adopted a more open attitude to its community, with the studio inviting fans to take part in the development project of their latest game Sea of Thieves . Around 1997, a number of Rare employees left to establish separate companies. The first

12319-545: The target of sexual harassment. This can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups, such as during the 2014 Gamergate controversy . Major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management, as well as discrimination by employers, have been brought up against Riot Games , Ubisoft and Activision Blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s, alongside smaller studios and individual developers. However, while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through

12446-535: The team considerable creative freedom, although they would intervene if a product was technically flawed or under-performing. Some employees noted that working for Rare in its early days could be difficult, with staff members allowed 30 minutes for lunch and possibly working more than 60 hours a week. Nintendo worked closely with Rare, and their relationship was described as a "creative partnership" by Viva Piñata designer Justin Cook. According to Hansen in 2010, innovation

12573-518: The third instalment of the Jetpac series, Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warship . Rare eventually acquired Zippo Games and renamed them to Rare Manchester. According to Ste Pickford, a Rare team member through the late 80s and the early 90s, Rare just "wanted to make as many games as they could in their 'window of opportunity'". The huge library of games made large profits, but none became

12700-399: The time of acquisition, said that the company attempted to preserve Rare's culture so its staff could continue feeling that they worked for Rare rather than Microsoft. Rare employees differed about working conditions after the Microsoft acquisition. According to Star Fox Adventures lead engineer Phil Tossell, conditions became more stressful after an "imperceptible" start, and the culture of

12827-484: The toxic nature of the video game culture. This racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one, and similar methods to result both have been suggested, such as improving grade school education, developing games that appeal beyond the white, male gamer stereotype, and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race. In regards to LGBT and other gender or sexual orientations,

12954-520: The two companies began clashing. Tossell said that Microsoft gradually imposed a corporate structure on Rare, including more performance reviews and meetings, to which some Rare members found difficulty in adapting. Some admitted that early changes, such as permitting team members to discuss projects they were not working on and allowing staff members to use the Internet or listen to music during work hours, were beneficial to team morale. Betteridge called

13081-535: The unlimited budget, Rare could work a large variety of different games. The first project Rare worked on was Slalom , a downhill skiing game. The company then worked with various gaming publishers that included Tradewest , Acclaim Entertainment , Electronic Arts , Sega , Mindscape , and Gametek to produce over 60 games for the NES and several additional Game Boy conversions. They helped in creating new and original intellectual properties , including R.C. Pro-Am ,

13208-487: The use of crunch time at Electronic Arts , a situation known as the "EA Spouses" case. A similar "Rockstar Spouses" case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at Rockstar San Diego . Since then, there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media. Game development had generally been a predominately male workforce. In 1989, according to Variety , women constituted only 3% of

13335-508: The video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 IGDA survey. Those in the LGBT community do not find workplace issues with their identity, though work to improve the representation of LGBT themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities. However, LGBT developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to

13462-678: The video game industry. Whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft-based model used by SAG-AFTRA which would unionize based on job function, others feel an industry-wide union, regardless of job position, would be better. Starting in 2021, several smaller game studios in the United States began efforts to unionize. These mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers. These studios included three QA studios under Blizzard Entertainment : Raven Software , Blizzard Albany , and Proletariat; and Zenimax Media 's QA team. Microsoft , which had previously acquired Zenimax and announced plans to acquire Blizzard via

13589-504: The workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor. Similar to other tech industries, video game developers are typically not unionized . This is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production, the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white-collar area, and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out. However, when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in

13716-597: Was GoldenEye 007 , a game based on the James Bond film GoldenEye . The project was led by Martin Hollis and development was conducted by an inexperienced team. Inspired by Sega 's Virtua Cop , Goldeneye 007 had originally been an on-rails shooter before the team decided to expand the gameplay and turn it into a free-roaming first-person shooter . New elements, such as stealth , headshot mechanics and reloading , were introduced. A split-screen multiplayer

13843-584: Was revived in 2013. The company had a supporting role in its development, assisting lead developer Double Helix Games . Another Rare mascot, Conker, was also featured in another Microsoft game, Project Spark as episodic downloadable content . Known as Conker's Big Reunion , it was cancelled in 2015. Are they gonna go: Rare is back? And what my answer would be is, Rare has never gone away. We've just changed and made different types of games. — Craig Duncan, head of Rare on their "next project" in 2014. Rare released Kinect Sports Rivals in 2014. The game

13970-400: Was Eighth Wonder, underwritten by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, which did not produce any games before it closed. After Martin Hollis left Rare, he joined Nintendo before founding his own company Zoonami , releasing Zendoku , Go! Puzzle and Bonsai Barber . Several Perfect Dark team members, including David Doak and Steve Ellis, founded Free Radical Design and created

14097-602: Was a commercial success; in January 2020, Microsoft declared it the most successful IP it released in the eighth generation , with more than 10 million players. The game was also released on the PlayStation 5 , marking it as Rare's first product on a PlayStation console. Since 2018, Rare has been working with Dlala Studios on a Battletoads revival for the Xbox One and Windows, which was eventually released in 2020. Rare would also reconnect with Nintendo in 2019 through

14224-508: Was a critical success, with critics praising the game's highly advanced visuals and artstyle. Donkey Kong Country sold over nine million copies worldwide, making it the third best-selling game in the SNES library . The game received several Game of the Year honours and was followed by two sequels, Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest and Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! , as well as several handheld spin-offs such as

14351-411: Was a game featuring a young boy named Edison and pirates. The protagonist was then replaced by a bear known as Banjo, and Rare expanded the role of Kazooie the bird . The two characters were inspired by characters from Walt Disney Animation Studios films and Rare hoped that they could appeal to a younger audience. Banjo-Kazooie was released in June 1998 to critical acclaim. A sequel, Banjo-Tooie ,

14478-430: Was acclaimed as innovative. The game's commercial performance was a disappointment, however, and some Rare team members questioned Microsoft Studios' large marketing budget for Gears of War and its relative neglect of Viva Piñata . On 2 January 2007, Rare founders Chris and Tim Stamper left the company to "pursue other opportunities". Former lead designer Gregg Mayles became Rare's creative director and Mark Betteridge

14605-477: Was added to the game by the end of its development. GoldenEye 007 was the first console first-person shooter developed by Rare and it was released two years after the release of the film. The game received critical praise and received numerous awards. Goldeneye 007 remained one of the best-selling games for two years, and sold more than eight million units worldwide. Rare then developed Diddy Kong Racing , their first self-published game. Originally intended as

14732-724: Was argued to be "exploitive", as Telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under "crunch time" to deliver its games. By the end of 2018, a United Kingdom trade union, Game Workers Unite UK, an affiliate of the Game Workers Unite movement, had been legally established. Following Activision Blizzard 's financial report for the previous quarter in February 2019, the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees (about 8% of their workforce) despite having record profits for that quarter. Further calls for unionization came from this news, including

14859-489: Was creating "key" DS games. Only two were ever released, with the first one being Diddy Kong Racing DS , a remake of the Nintendo 64 title Diddy Kong Racing which was released in February 2007, and the second being Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise , a life simulation game , released in September 2008. Both games support the Nintendo DS Rumble Pak . Rare released Conker: Live & Reloaded ,

14986-430: Was intended for a mature audience, and features violence , profanity and scatological humour . The game received positive reviews from critics, but was a commercial failure as the game was released at the end of the Nintendo 64's life cycle and was not actively promoted by Nintendo due to its crude content. After the completion of Diddy Kong Racing , another team was working on a new game known as Dinosaur Planet for

15113-435: Was monitored by cameras. The company was internally divided into different barns where employees worked exclusively on their group's game. According to Tim Stamper, Rare has a different philosophy. We don't really have much contact with other game development companies and we just do things the way they've evolved. We try to employ people who are great games players and games enthusiasts and they're really interested in seeing

15240-463: Was one of the biggest UK-based video game development companies. The ZX Spectrum home computer , the platform the company usually developed games for, was only popular in the UK, and they believed that working on that platform would not be beneficial to the company's growth as they considered it a "dead end". Meanwhile, the company inspected an imported console from Japan, the Famicom , and believed that it would be an ideal future platform of choice for

15367-462: Was originally intended for GameCube before its redesign as an Xbox 360 game. Rare removed several features to meet the game's release deadline in 2005. Kameo: Elements of Power was also intended for the GameCube. A new intellectual property , in it the player character shape-shifts to solve puzzles. Although both received generally positive reviews from critics and sold more than a million copies, they were considered disappointments. Yet, so much of

15494-518: Was released in 2000 to critical acclaim. The game sold approximately 2 million copies. Conker the Squirrel also had his own game, originally named Conker's Quest . It was later renamed Twelve Tales: Conker 64 ; however, the new game was criticised for being too family-friendly and too similar to Banjo-Kazooie . As a result, the team renamed the game Conker's Bad Fur Day and it was re-revealed in 2000. Conker's Bad Fur Day , unlike Banjo-Kazooie ,

15621-413: Was released in 2000. It was a critical success and it outsold the first game, selling 3 million copies. Upon the completion of Banjo-Kazooie ' s development, Hollis immediately began another project. Originally set to be a tie-in for Tomorrow Never Dies , Rare was significantly outbid by another publisher, forcing Rare to develop a new concept with new characters. With a major emphasis on lighting,

15748-508: Was released in 2018. Several former Rare employees have formed their own companies, such as Free Radical Design , best known for producing the TimeSplitters series, and Playtonic Games , best known for Yooka-Laylee (2017). Rare is widely acknowledged in the video game industry and has received numerous accolades from critics and journalists. Rare is also known as a secretive and seclusive studio. Several Rare games, such as Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye 007 , have been cited as among

15875-565: Was released on 11 April 2017 with mixed reviews. According to Rare composer Robin Beanland , the year 2015 would be significant for the company. At E3 2015 , a new compilation game, Rare Replay celebrating the studio's 30th anniversary, was introduced; it was released in August. The compilation's thirty titles only included games to which Rare owned the intellectual property. Because of this, Rare's operations director Drew Quakenbush noted it

16002-446: Was the reason GoldenEye 007 's absence from the compilation. Rare Replay became the most pre-ordered game shown at E3 that year and received critical acclaim upon launch. A new game, Sea of Thieves , a multiplayer adventure game marketed as "The Best Game That Rare Has Ever Made", was introduced at E3 that year. It was delayed at the following year's conference and was released on 20 March 2018. The game received mixed reviews, but

16129-509: Was worked on by 150 staff members and a new game engine was developed for it. The game was a commercial failure and following Microsoft's announcement that Kinect would no longer be a priority, about 15 Rare employees were laid off. On 10 February 2015, a group of former Rare employees announced the formation of a new studio, Playtonic Games , and planned a "spiritual successor" to the Banjo-Kazooie franchise titled Yooka-Laylee , which

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